Susan J. Popkin

The Gautreaux Legacy: What Might Mixed‐Income and Dispersal Strategies Mean for the Poorest Public Housing Tenants?

Abstract The current transformation of public and assisted housing reflects the legacy of the Gautreaux case, which created the first mobility and scattered‐site programs. Mixed‐income and dispersal strategies now dominate federal housing policy, although their focus has shifted. Drawing on evidence from two preliminary studies of public housing transformation in Chicago, we argue that these new strategies seem to offer benefits for distressed public housing communities but also involve risks for the most vulnerable current tenants. Increased screening and/or the need to compete with private market tenants may force these families out of the assisted housing market. Addressing the complex needs of the most troubled public housing tenants will call for a more comprehensive solution. The intent of the Gautreaux case was to increase opportunity and enhance quality of life for public housing tenants; policy makers should take steps to ensure that current programs reflect these fundamental goals.

The HOPE VI Program: What about the residents?

Abstract During the 1990s, the federal government dramatically changed its policy on housing the poor. Under the HOPE VI (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) Program, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development intended to address the concentration of troubled low‐income households in public housing by moving away from its reliance on project‐based assistance and promoting instead the construction of mixed‐income housing and the use of housing subsidies. This article presents important evidence from two systematic, multicity studies on how the original residents of HOPE VI developments have been affected by this radical new approach to public housing. While many residents have clearly benefited, the findings raise critical questions about whether the transformation of public housing will achieve its potential as a powerful force for improving the lives of low‐income families.

The hidden war: Crime and the tragedy of public housing in Chicago

Focusing on three developments, this study chronicles the many failed efforts of the Chicago Housing Authority to combat crime and improve its high-rise developments. The authors reveal the dilemmas facing women and children who are often victims or witnesses of violent crime.

Girls in the ’Hood: How Safety Affects the Life Chances of Low-Income Girls

Adolescents growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods are at risk for a range of negative outcomes. Girls face specific threats because of their gender—omnipresent harassment, pressure for early sexual initiation, pervasive intimate partner violence, and high risk of sexual assault.This article uses mixed-methods data from the Three-City Study of Moving to Opportunity (MTO) to explore how moving to lower-poverty neighborhoods may have influenced adolescent girls’ life chances. MTO families moved to neighborhoods with lower levels of violent crime overall, but MTO girls also experienced a substantial reduction in the “female fear,” Gordon and Riger’s term for the fear of sexual harassment, coercion, and rape. The authors argue that this change is a plausible explanation for the notable improvements in MTO girls’ well-being.

Why Did the Moving to Opportunity Experiment Not Get Young People into Better Schools

Abstract Educational failure is one of the costliest and most visible problems associated with ghetto poverty. We explore whether housing assistance that helps low‐income families move to better neighborhoods can also improve access to good schools. Research on the Gautreaux housing desegregation program indicated significant, long‐term educational benefits, yet results from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment showed no measurable impacts on school outcomes for the experimental group. We use interviews and ethnographic fieldwork to explore this puzzle. Most MTO families did not relocate to communities with substantially better schools, and those who did often moved again after a few years. Where parents had meaningful school choices, these were typically driven by poor information obtained from insular social networks or by cultural logic centered on avoiding ghetto‐type school insecurity and disorder, not garnering academic opportunity. Those factors may not shift if poor families with less educated parents are served by a relocation‐only strategy.

A glass half empty? New evidence from the HOPE VI Panel Study

The Chicago Housing Authority is midway through its ambitious Plan for Transformation. This paper presents new evidence about how residents have fared since the transformation began. Questions remain about where they are living, the circumstances of their new housing, and how relocation has affected their overall well-being. This paper presents new evidence on resident outcomes from the HOPE VI Panel Study, a national study that includes Chicago. The findings show that those residents who received vouchers are living in better housing in dramatically safer neighborhoods; many report improved mental health; and their children are having fewer behavior problems. But there are also very real reasons for concern. Voucher holders are experiencing economic hardship that may place them at risk for housing instability and the most troubled families are at risk for being left behind in traditional public housing, little better off than they were when the Plan began.

The Health Status of HOPE VI Public Housing Residents

The purpose of this study is to provide new data on the relationship between housing quality and health status for people in five HOPE VI public housing developments around the country. HOPE VI is a federal program to replace or redevelop some of the poorest quality public housing in the country. A special survey of residents of these developments was conducted while they lived in HOPE VI housing before its redevelopment. Data for these individuals provides a profile of the quality of housing and the health status of people in HOPE VI housing before its renovation, of residents of publicly assisted housing across the nation, of other people living below the federal poverty level, and of non-poor people. Previously, the lack of data sets that included both housing quality and health status measures has prevented such an analysis. We examined two indicators of health status—perceived overall health status and medically diagnosed asthma. The health status of HOPE VI residents is decidedly worse than that of others in assisted housing and other poor people, despite their similarity in terms of economic deprivation. The difference in the level of asthma prevalence, a condition that has been tied to various measures of housing quality, is especially pronounced. Our analysis indicates that one major benefit of improving housing quality may be improved health status.

Data Collection in Dangerous Neighborhoods

As part of an evaluation of the Chicago Housing Authontys (CHA) Anti-Drug Initiative—a comprehensive crime prevention program—the authors have conducted four waves of a cross- sectional, face-to-face survey in nine CHA buildings. This article describes the data collection procedures developed, including using resident interviewers, the problems encountered, and the lessons learned. The authors describe their experiences in recruiting and training resident interviewers and addressing safety concerns. Using techniques developed for this study, the authors achieved consistently high response rates (more than 75%), despite the constraints of interviewing in public housing.

Combating crime in public housing: A qualitative and quantitative longitudinal analysis of the Chicago Housing Authority's Anti-Drug Initiative

The Chicago Housing Authoritys (CHA) notorious high-rise developments are among the most dangerous public housing in America. In the early 1990s, the CHA launched an ambitious attack on crime, a comprehensive and collaborative crime prevention program known as the Anti-Drug Initiative (ADI). From 1994 to 1996 we tracked conditions in three of the CHAs high-rise developments, assessing the agencys success in implementing the ADI programs in each site as well as tracking other, related interventions. Using a combination of surveys and qualitative research methods, we examined the impact of these programs through the eyes of the residents and other key actors, looking at various outcome measures related to crime and disorder. Our findings indicate some positive results, but follow-up research conducted in 1996 documented the fragility of these changes and their vulnerability to gang influence.

Surveying a Chicago Public Housing Development Methodological Challenges and Lessons Learned

During the winter and spring of 2003, the Survey Research Laboratory conducted a survey of residents of the Ida Wells and Madden Park housing developments on Chicagos near-south side. This article reviews existing research findings on using indigenous interviewers and reports the findings about the benefits and challenges of using residents as interviewers versus drawing from a regular pool of interviewers. Specifically, the authors talk abthe challenges faced in using indigenous interviewers and then look at some data quality indicators among these two groups of interviewers, including cooperation rates, item nonresponse, and differences in responses to sensitive questions.